github Memes

So a tech journalist just suggested that open source should "ban itself" in certain countries based on geopolitics. That's like suggesting gravity should stop working in specific time zones because of trade disputes. The entire point of open source is that the code is, well, open . It's publicly available. You can't "ban" something that's already distributed across millions of repositories, forks, and local machines worldwide. Even if you deleted every GitHub repo tomorrow, the code would still exist on countless hard drives, mirrors, and archive sites. Trying to geofence open source is like trying to un-ring a bell or put toothpaste back in the tube. The MIT license doesn't come with geographical restrictions for a reason. That's literally the opposite of how information distribution works on the internet. But hey, at least we got a solid Boromir meme out of someone's fundamental misunderstanding of software licensing and distribution.

The MIT License is basically the "do whatever you want with my code, I don't care" of open source licenses. It's one of the most permissive licenses out there—you can copy, modify, distribute, sell, and even use it in proprietary software. The only requirement? Keep the copyright notice. So when a dev slaps an MIT license on their repo and then gets mad that someone "stole" their project... buddy, you literally gave everyone permission to do exactly that. That's like leaving your front door wide open with a sign saying "help yourself" and then calling the cops when someone takes your TV. The Persian cat's dramatic pose perfectly captures the absurdity of complaining about something you explicitly allowed. Should've gone with GPL if you wanted that copyleft protection, my friend.

So Markdown just casually went from "barely registering on the chart" to "I'm about to end Python's whole career" in like 2 years? Someone's clearly been feeding their README files steroids. The graph shows Markdown's popularity shooting up at a near-vertical angle around 2022, threatening to overtake every actual programming language on the chart. Plot twist: Markdown isn't even a programming language. It's a markup language. That's like saying Microsoft Word is competing with C++ because people write documentation in it. But hey, according to PYPL (PopularitY of Programming Language), apparently writing **bold text** and # headers now qualifies you as a software engineer. The real question: Did someone accidentally include every GitHub README, Stack Overflow post, and Discord message in their dataset? Because that's the only way this makes sense. Next year's chart will probably show HTML as the "hottest new programming language" with SQL making a surprise comeback as "the future of coding."